DOE Title XVII Clean Energy Financing Program

OPPORTUNITY

Under Title 17, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) may provide loan guarantees for projects that support clean energy deployment and energy infrastructure reinvestment in the United States. LPO administers the Title 17 program under the authority created in Title 17 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.  Title 17 has been reauthorized, amended, and revised by legislation since that time, including by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in 2021 and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022. DOE has promulgated regulations implementing the Title 17 program, which are set forth in Part 609 of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (“Title 17 Regulations”).

DESCRIPTION:

The Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program serves as a “Bridge to Bankability” for clean energy projects that are critical to achieving the decarbonization of the energy sector and enhancing the domestic clean energy supply chain. Repeat deployments that prove market adoption enable ‘bankability,’ unlocking commercial debt markets. The Title 17 program can support technologies at each deployment milestone—first-of-a-kind deployments that solve applied engineering challenges; follow-on deployments that establish engineering, procurement, and construction excellence and lower total project costs; substantial scaling of deployment and manufacturing capacity to drive advancement along the learning curve; and education of commercial debt markets to enable broadly available debt financing.

The Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program offers loan guarantees to support clean energy deployment and energy infrastructure reinvestment for projects qualifying under four categories:

Innovative Energy (Section 1703) projects deploy qualifying New or Significantly Improved Technology that is technically proven but not widely commercialized in the United States.

Innovative Supply Chain (Section 1703) projects employ a New or Significantly Improved Technology in the manufacturing process for a qualifying clean energy technology or manufacture a qualifying New or Significantly Improved Technology.

State Energy Financing Institution (SEFI; Section 1703) projects support the deployment of qualifying clean energy technology and receive meaningful financial support or credit enhancements from an entity within a State agency or financing authority. SEFI projects are not required to employ innovative technology.

Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR; Section 1706) projects retool, repower, repurpose, or replace Energy Infrastructure (facilities used for electric generation or transmission, or facilities used for fossil fuel-related production, processing, and delivery) that has ceased operations; or enable operating Energy Infrastructure to avoid, reduce, utilize, or sequester air pollutants or emissions of greenhouse gases. EIR projects are not required to employ innovative technology.

MATCHING AND COST-SHARING:

Loan guarantee up to 80% of eligible project costs, although project cashflows and credit risk considerations often lower leverage ratios with many projects ending up in the 50 to 70% range.

ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS:

Title 17 loan financing can be accessed by a wide range of entities in the Project Sponsor role. LPO has experience working with project developers, clean tech manufacturers and service providers, regulated utilities, public power entities, and independent power producers, among others.

AVAILABLE FUNDING AND APPLICATION WINDOW:

FUNDING AMOUNTS:

• Section 1703 (Innovative Energy, Innovative Supply Chain, and SEFI Projects Categories) -The amount of loan guarantee authority made available is $40 billion under the Inflation Reduction Act and $15 billion under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023.
• Section 1706 – Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR Projects) Category The amount of loan guarantee authority available under the Inflation Reduction Act is $250 billion.

APPLICATION DEADLINE:

Applications can be submitted year-round.